GREEN BAY – The NFL draft in 2020 will be in Las Vegas, the new home of the Raiders.

The NFL made the announcement Wednesday.

The Green Bay Packers would like to host an NFL draft in the near future and will request to do so in 2022 or later, after a new Brown County expo center is expected to open.

"A part of our bid would include the new exposition center. That is slated right now to be done about April 2021," said Brad Toll, president and CEO of the Greater Green Bay Convention & Vistors Bureau. "That's when the draft is, so that would be a little risky."

The expo center could open in 2020, said Deputy County Executive Jeff Flynt, but, given the vagaries of large construction projects, the opening could be delayed until 2021.

"The thought is to begin building in the second quarter of 2019," he said.

The expo center would replace the 59-year-old Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena immediately east of Lambeau Fieldon South Oneida Street.

Brown County began collecting a 0.5 percent sales tax Jan. 1, 2017, to help pay for the expo center and other capital projects. The Brown County Taxpayers Association sued the county, claiming the tax is illegal, but collection began as scheduled.

The 2019 NFL draft will be April 25-27 in Nashville. The 2018 draft was in Arlington, Texas.

Toll said those are very different venues, which bodes well for Green Bay's bid to host the draft.

"The feeling I got from (NFL representatives) is they like that," Toll said. "You are kind of celebrating all the franchises and the differences between them. Green Bay would bring something very unique to that table.

Toll said he would not be concerned about following a glitzy site, such as Las Vegas, or a big one, such as Dallas.

"You look at the NFL cities, they are all tons bigger than we are. We are going to follow a major metropolitan area," he said.

Hotel rooms would be one challenge to hosting the draft, but that depends on how many the NFL requires and how close they need to be to the event.

According to the NFL, more than 100,000 people attended the first day of the draft in Arlington, a one-day record. The 2017 draft in Philadelphia drew 250,000 fans and 1,800 media members over three days.

At the end of 2017, the Green Bay metro area had just more than 4,500 rooms and Appleton 3,000. About 250 more rooms are scheduled open in the Green Bay metro area in the next year, and at least one other hotel is being contemplated.

As with the Wisconsin-LSU college football game in September 2016, it's not unreasonable to expect some people to stay as far away as Milwaukee or Madison. Something like that is happening for the 2020 Ryder Cup, to be held at Whistling Straits in Kohler.

Green Bay successfully hosted NFC championship games and the University of Wisconsin-LSU football game in 2016, proving it can handle large events, Toll said.

The draft includes the NFL Draft Experience – a massive free football festival – that allows fans to test their football skills, enjoy interactive exhibits and autograph sessions, and take pictures with the Vince Lombardi Trophy. The Packers hosted their version of that in July 2018 to celebrate the kickoff to their 100th year of football.